by Sean Salazar
“You don’t understand.”
“Try me.”
She hesitated a few seconds and looked up at Ed.
Vance spoke first, “Look, if you are trying to protect your professor, I think that question has been answered.”
“I know,” she said, somberly looking down at the helicopter floor, her dried, muddy hair still clumped over her face.
“So why don’t you tell us what the fuck really happened,” Vance said as calmly as he could.
She nodded up and down. “Okay.”
Ed looked over and let his glasses slide down his nose. “It’s okay, my dear, you are not in trouble.”
“Yet,” Vance added.
“He was already dead when I arrived; there was no one there.” She looked down again. “When I saw him on the floor chopped to pieces like that, I threw up and I didn’t know what to do.”
“Yeah...go on,” Vance said, tapping his ashes on the floor.
“For a while...”
Ed cut her off. “Did you have the scroll with you?”
She nodded, “Yes.”
“And this is it?”
“Yes, that’s it.”
She was quiet for a moment and Vance said, “Go on.”
She breathed, “Yes, when I was alone I didn’t know what to do, and then... I heard a noise outside... And as fast as I could I hid the scroll.”
Vance listened to her changing her story, still not believing it. “And,” he asked, moving her along.
“I hid the scroll and made it to the walkway where it leads to the door when she came in.”
Vance dropped his cigarette and sat up straighter, “She?
“A dark-haired woman came in and pointed a gun at me. She told me to raise my hands and back up.”
Vance glanced at Ed, knowing damn well who she was, but didn’t say anything and glanced back at Zohar.
“She walked towards me as I backed up and when the hallway ended she saw the professor’s body. The sight of the body caught her off-guard and she seemed as shocked as I was.”
“I bet she didn’t throw up,” Vance added sarcastically.
“Well, no she didn’t. She then grabbed my hair, dragged me over to the body, and asked me what happened.”
“What did you tell her?” Ed asked.
“I told her I didn’t know and then she pulled me outside and hit me in the back of my head with her gun and I passed out. When I awoke, in the mud, I came back inside.”
“And that is when Sadusky and his men arrived,” Vance finished for her.
She glanced over at Vance. “I was afraid to say anything until I saw you come in.”
“You said she hit you in the back of the head,” Vance said. “Then how did you get that shiner on your face?”
“I landed on a rock in the grass, I think.”
Vance picked up his cigarette off the floor and responded suspiciously, “Oh.”
Ed clicked on a small overhead dome light and aimed it at the scroll. He then pushed his reading glasses back up his nose and re-focused on the computer, “Thank you for relaying that story, my dear.”
Vance checked his PDA for the time. “How long ago was the dark-haired woman here?”
“Maybe a couple of hours ago.”
Ed turned the computer to face her and asked, “Is this the dark-haired woman?”
She leaned in closer to see the screen and said, “Yes, for sure.”
“Shit, I knew it,” Vance said.
Ed turned the screen back around, “So the question is, was Agent Jess Contreras tracking you or the professor?”
“Who is she?”
Vance glanced over at Ed, “and why didn’t she shoot her?”
“Okay, well thanks a lot,” Dr. Zohar added, loosening the coat around her shoulders.
Then a thought hit Vance. “Right, why didn’t she shoot you?” He paused a moment and glanced out the side door window into the rain. He then turned to the pilot, “Hey man, have you seen anyone moving around out here?”
The pilot turned around, shaking his helmeted head.
Vance knew the pilot couldn’t see a damn thing through the rain but something wasn’t right. In fact, something was seriously wrong.
“Fuck,” he said out loud, pulling out his gun. He chambered a round and announced, “Agent Jess Contreras is using the doc here as bait.” He sized up the helicopter cabin, realizing that a large caliber bullet could easily punch a hole anywhere. “And to top it off she’s a fucking sniper.”
Ed looked up, “Pilot,” he yelled, “get us out of here.”
The pilot’s hands immediately went into action, flipping switches to power up the engines.
As the vibration of the turbines kicked in, Dr. Zohar asked, “She is using me as bait?”
“She is a cold-blooded killer,” Vance said as the chopper lifted off. It hadn’t lifted ten feet when the helicopter jerked to the side and nose-dived back into the grass, hitting with a loud thud.
Vance had just enough time to grab something to hold onto and turned around, saw the pilot slumped over to the side with blood dripping out of the helmet. He couldn’t see his face but he knew exactly what was happening. “Right on time,” he yelled. He could see the hole in the pilot’s windshield and estimated the bullet’s direction as coming from the front right area. Vance listened for the rotors to hit the ground and they didn’t so he yanked the door open as the chopper stabilized. The rotors were still turning and loudly whipping in the rain. On hearing the obvious crash, the detectives came running out of the building. Vance turned, “You guys okay?”
A resounding yes came from Dr. Zohar but Ed didn’t even appear phased and was still working on his computer. “Hey Ed, you okay?”
“Yes, of course,” he answered loudly over the engines. “I wanted to double-check one of the words with our translation software before I moved on.”
Al had warned Vance how tough as nails Ed was and now he believed it.
“Shouldn’t we get out?” she asked.
Vance held his arm out to keep her in place, “No, not yet.” He then turned, staying low, and worked his way over to the slumped-over pilot. He pulled his arms off the collective and made sure his feet were not on the pedals.
The pilot’s door opened and Vance saw the other chopper pilot assessing the situation. He still had his helmet on and Vance yelled out, “He’s dead.”
“I can see that,” he answered. “What the hell happened?”
Vance pointed to the bullet hole in the windshield, “Bubba, there’s a sniper out there. I highly suggest you take cover.”
“Roger that,” he answered, ducking out of the way. “He then reached in and shut off the engines.”
Vance climbed back out of the cockpit and saw that Ed was all packed up. “Let’s go.”
They quickly ran to the other chopper and boarded as if they were under fire. The pilot got the engines running and they were airborne within seconds.
Vance braced for another sniper shot but none came, or not that he could hear. After a few more seconds, Vance relaxed, letting out a deep sigh. He glanced at the doc. She was holding onto the borrowed wrap-around jacket and was staring at the floor, shivering from obvious nerves. He glanced over at Ed who was typing away on his computer as if it was business as usual. Several more seconds went by before Vance reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out his pack of cigarettes and his PDA. He lit one, took an extra-long drag, and typed a message to Al that Jess was here on a rampage. He hit the SEND button and sat back.
They all put on headsets and, without taking his eyes off the computer, Ed started to say, “How do you—or should I ask—where were your recent translations coming from?”
“I am still amazed that you can read that,” she answered, loosening the coat up around her shoulders. She began nervously rubbing her hands together.
“I would assume,” Ed said, “that some of your translations came in recently, yes?”
She began to stare and sai
d, “This is my first time seeing someone dead.”
“Well,” Vance said tapping his ashes onto the floor, “you picked a good day to end that streak.”
The chopper shook up and down briefly flying through rough air. When it settled down, she looked over at Ed, “Well I, um...” She struggled to get the words out and gave up, lowering her head again.
Ed sat up straighter and pushed the computer screen down, halfway dimming the light off his face. He then took off his glasses and said, “My dear, about two thousand years ago and moments before the Roman army captured him, King Decebalus of the area now called Romania chose to commit suicide over being captured. The Romans then immediately seized the remainder of his lands and began searching for his massive hidden treasure.” He stopped for a moment until she raised her head. He then continued, “In order to locate the hidden treasure, the Romans relentlessly tracked, tortured and brutally murdered anyone they discovered had anything to do with the treasure.” He paused again, “Eventually they hunted down and found the one person closest to the king.”
“I can see where this is heading,” Vance said.
“When his remains were discovered, they found a scene identical to the one suffered by your professor, Dr. Golb.”
She buried her head in her hands, tightening the fingers around her ears with clumps of hair, “I can’t get the vision of him lying there out of my mind, and now the dead pilot.”
Vance exhaled a long trail of smoke and tapped the ashes onto the ground. “So you’re saying the Brotherhood is going medieval on us, looking for hidden treasure details or a location on that scroll?”
Ed re-lifted the computer screen, slipped on his glasses, and began
typing.
Suddenly Dr. Zohar let go of her hair and lifted her head, “Did they find it?”
Ed glanced over at her with an inquisitive look.
“The Romans,” she said. “Did they find the treasure?”
“Oh,” Ed said, “they most certainly did.”
“Okay,” she slowly said.
“According to history,” Ed continued, “the King had the direction of the mighty river Saretia temporarily redirected. He then ordered the use of captured Roman soldiers to bury his many tons of gold and silver in the mud directly under where the river flowed.”
“And then sent the rushing water back over the spot,” Vance added.
“Yes, and to conceal its secret location, the King had the captured Roman soldiers executed.”
“Massacres and brutality are definitely on the rise,” Vance said.
“Which brings up another point,” Ed said. “After what you just witnessed my dear, your mind and spirit are in turmoil.”
She nodded.
Ed continued, “The answer to the brutality of the past, if there ever was such an answer, was a heavy belief in the after-life and a past life. Armies would often march through entire regions brutally killing every man, woman, and child, fully believing that their souls would simply move on and possibly return. That,” he continued, “was the reason all mention of past lives was removed from religious scripture. It helped to civilize and tone down the brutality of warfare.”
“Excuse me,” Vance said, “I could think of a religion that seemed to have missed that memo.”
“Oh yes,” Ed continued, “Islam was just beginning at that time and alternate versions unfortunately led to the brutal Jihad. A wholesale belief in the after-life—whether true or not—led to what we called the permanent revolution.”
“I will never buy that as an excuse for murdering my professor,” she said.
“Although, the question I have now is the relation of this scroll here to the actual Dead Sea Scrolls.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said.
“Because,” Ed paused a moment as the chopper bounced around through turbulence, “I am bringing these ancient stories up to you for a couple of reasons.”
She gave a willing look that she was listening.
“Another goal of the conquering Romans in the area of Israel was the location of Herod’s treasure.”
“The Biblical Herod and the copper scrolls,” she said, perking up.
“Precisely,” Ed said.
She gave Ed a very serious look and responded back, “The Dead Sea Scrolls.”
Vance watched them go back and forth like a secret pact and asked, “Should I even bother asking what you two are talking about, or should I just stay out of it?”
Dr. Zohar turned to Vance, “The locations of Herod’s treasures were listed in detail on the copper scrolls.”
“This copper scroll here that you saved,” Ed said, pointing to it, “is part of a very important scroll. So important, in fact, that it has part of a missing section of Holy Script that we had in our possession.”
“Had?” she asked.
“Our London bunker was attacked and I am still waiting to hear what has been salvaged,” Ed said.
“I see,” she said. “But are you saying that you have actually translated the writing?”
“The mysterious writing on this scroll is what we call Holy Script, and we have been working on it for many years.”
“But you already have it?”
Ed began typing away on the computer and after a few seconds he said, “Look here.”
She stood up and moved over to Ed’s side of the cabin.
“Dr. Zohar,” Ed said. “I am showing this to you because I believe you are an innocent bystander, but not just that; you may have important information that we need.”
“Well,” she said, sounding relieved, “as long as I am not in trouble I’ll help any way I can.”
“Now,” Ed continued, “I brought up the history of Decebalus for a reason, because the method of torture used then is identical to what happened here.”
“And the result was a full confession,” Vance said.
“Most likely,” Ed answered.
“Which is going to lead to a buried treasure,” she asked. “Dr. Golb mentioned something about that, but he had said that he believed that it was a story about something hidden.”
“Very close,” Ed said.
Vance leaned back, “This is way over my head.”
“I’m following you,” Dr. Zohar added, and asked again, “So you can really read this writing?”
Ed paused for a moment reading the computer screen. “Allow me,” he said, then began reading,
“The wars of conquering men continue unhindered. Thou extended reach is unstoppable; the gods cannot stop man. Thou make secret the underworld in preparation of the return. It shall...”
She watched the screen very carefully as he did and said slowly, “I can’t believe you can actually read this.”
“There is much more,” he said, “and I believe that what you have here is part of the missing information that we need.”
“I don’t understand,” she said.
Ed leaned back, “Well first of all, we have a library of this writing called Holy Script.”
“Why are you calling it Holy Script?”
“That is an excellent question,” Ed answered. “After years of struggling with the translating process we discovered a common theme that was very significant. It turns out that the writing was essentially communication between the gods themselves.”
“Interesting,” she said. “So how did you decipher it was communications between gods?”
“In essence, we didn’t. It was more of an observation and once we took that approach, deciphering the written word began to make sense. For example,” Ed sat back up and began typing, “our translating process is not one hundred percent correct but we believe we are very close.” He continued typing for a few seconds, then stopped. “The copper scroll here is the continuation of a gold plate that came into our possession a short time ago. Once we translated it, it virtually led us to the discovery of the bomb that exploded in Baalbek, Lebanon. And even more coincidental was writing we found under Washington, D.C., which was also a mi
ssing part of the gold plate as your scroll here is.”
Vance followed along the best he could. He had only heard about the gold plate that Al acquired somehow.
“What is truly amazing is that you and your professor seemed to have deciphered a part that our translating program stalled on.”
“Oh,” she said. “Which part?”
“Our translating program did not finish the earlier translation because of missing words and here it is.”
“And the translating program finished it?”
“It looks that way,” Ed said, as the chopper bounced a bit.
Vance continued to watch the exchange take place wondering what Ed was up to and how much he was going to divulge.
“Assuming,” Ed continued, “that your professor was correct.”
“I guess we will find out,” Vance added, feigning that he was remotely interested in the writing mumbo jumbo.
After a brief flight, the pilot announced over the headsets that they would be landing shortly.
Once the chopper landed, they exited and immediately boarded a small jet and headed aft towards the cabin area. Alex Pike and Natalie were sitting against the port side in a large chair. There were several more rotating chairs designed specifically for meetings.
Ed motioned for Dr. Zohar to sit down and said, “This is Mr. Pike and Ms. Sikorsky. This,” he said, “is Dr. Zohar who has been translating Holy Script at the university with Dr. Golb.”
“You don’t say,” Alex responded skeptically. “And that was his body found?”
Dr. Zohar glanced at Alex and nodded.
Vance sat down across from them shaking his hand and adding, “We have not fully confirmed it yet.”
“I’ll explain in a moment,” Ed said.
Alex gazed back at Zohar, “And you have translated Holy Script?”
Dr. Zohar loosened the coat around her and laid it against the cabin wall. She then sat down, still a muddy mess, and answered, “I think so, or at least he believes we did.”
“They most certainly have,” Ed added, sitting down.
Ed opened his laptop and pulled the small box out of his bag. “This is going to amaze you, my friend.”
Alex arched his bushy eyebrows, “Very well then.”
“What we have here is some of our missing work,” Ed said, gently placing it on the table.